“It takes a monster to kill children. But to watch monsters kill children again and again and do nothing isn’t just insanity — it’s inhumanity.”— Amanda Gorman

A mass shooting killed six people, and about two dozen more were seriously injured, during an Independence Day parade in Highland Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. The very day we celebrate our country, our freedom, and our independence. 

It’s hardly a shock.

These mass murders should be outrageous, but they happen all too frequently in the United States of America. According to The Washington Post and the Gun Violence Archive, there have been just over 300 mass shootings in the country this year. (https://www.forbes.com/sites/joewalsh/2022/07/04/us-mass-shootings-hover-near-record-breaking-levels/?sh=2fc672b15f62)

“They kill each other all the time in Chicago,” someone said to me earlier tonight while discussing the incident.

I knew who “they” meant. The part of me that longs to see the best in people hopes this person said this as a way to cope and brush off the violence–-a way to excuse themselves from it as if it doesn’t impact them personally. The part of me that is realistic knows it was much more racist and sinister, and that even the so-called see the best view is rooted in deep privilege.

After all, this same person said to me after the Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, in 2016, which left 49 people dead, “Just because you disagree with that lifestyle doesn’t mean you kill them.” I’m paraphrasing a little because I want to forget that moment forever. I don’t want someone I love to have glossed over and excused the murders of 49 LGBTQ+ people. My heart can’t handle that justification.

(Just for the record, most guns used in Chicago come from outside the city and even the state, and Highland Park is an affluent, 80 percent white city, and the apprehended suspect is a white male between the age of 18-25.)

This is a uniquely American problem. Just look at this graph from Bloomberg. (https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2022-us-gun-violence-world-comparison/​)

What makes us different? It’s the prevalence of guns.

In the U.S. almost 80 percent of homicides are gun related. Compare that to countries with stricter gun safety laws such as Australia (13 percent), Canada (37 percent), and the United Kingdom (four percent). (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41488081​)

​I ask anyone reading this to please tell me what is “pro-life” about gun ownership and gun violence? I’ll save more of that rant for a later time.

Thank God we currently have a president who takes gun violence seriously, and thank God for the doggedness of activists and politicians like Shannon Watts, former Rep. Gabby Giffords, Sen. Chris Murphy (CT), and Rep. Lucy McBath (GA-06). Major props to President Biden, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer for recently getting the first gun safety bill in almost 30 years signed into law. (https://www.npr.org/2022/06/25/1107626030/biden-signs-gun-safety-law​)

I’m so tired and sad from all the senseless violence. We shouldn’t have to worry that tomorrow we’re going to hear about another horrific incident, or even worse, experience one personally. 

I encourage you to get involved locally in any way you can. Volunteer with a gun safety group. Donate to gun safety groups or candidates. I strongly recommend Everytown for Gun Safety. (I’m happy to help you find some local or federal candidates!) It’s the only way we can stop the violence.

And, for the record, I do not care what a 200+ year old document written by white men who enslaved people thought about the right to bear arms. We're not talking about a well regulated militia or muskets anymore. 

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